A UFC Excursion Like No Other - MMA’s Mecca

If MMA were a religion, its holiest sites would be spread
throughout the world. Many of the traditional martial arts
developed in the Far East, and, in the dojos and professional
wrestling rings of Japan, mixed martial arts began to take hold as
a concept decades ago. In America and England, in particular, catch
wrestling encouraged its competitors to cross disciplines and
develop a universal combat skill set. However, more so than Tokyo,
Lancashire or Las Vegas, MMA’s Mecca might very well be located in
Brazil.

In Belem, the Japanese master Mitsuyo Maeda taught Carlos Gracie
the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That discipline was passed down
through the likes of Helio Gracie and Rickson
Gracie before Royce Gracie
introduced it to the American public at UFC 1 in
1993. As would later be demonstrated, the Gracies did not have a
monopoly on MMA wisdom, but the story of Royce Gracie
became the story of the UFC. The
Ultimate Fighting Championship became MMA’s dominant stage,
and, as such, the winding road towards today’s MMA is most often
traced to the training centers of Brazil.

With such a rich history, it seems strange that the UFC has not run
a show in Brazil in almost 13 years. Yet, that is precisely the
case, so Saturday’s event will serve as a celebration for Brazilian
MMA and its role in the development of the sport. While UFC
134 will reintroduce live UFC competition to one of the sport’s
homelands, the promotion voyaged to Brazil once before for an event
that was quite memorable for the time.

In the fall of 1998, the UFC was on the decline. Pay-per-view buy
rates had gone down and the sport was under fire by politicians and
cable providers. Far from the big lights and big cities of today,
the UFC’s then parent company, Semaphore Entertainment Group, ran
in unregulated and under-regulated sites in Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana. Brazil was a natural fit for an event, and the UFC
targeted the Ginasio da Portuguesa arena in Sao Paulo.

“I remember that place vividly,” Frank
Shamrock says. “It was somewhat decaying and falling down. It
was the first arena I’d been in that looked like a third world
country arena. The plaster was coming down. It was pretty
scary.”

UFC 134 will take place at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena, a
state-of-the-art facility built in 2007 that will host the Summer
Olympics in 2016. UFC 17.5
“Ultimate Brazil” did not have quite the same grandeur, but it
was seen by a raucous crowd that reacted with enthusiasm to the
proceedings. Many of the fighters on the card were also
particularly enthusiastic to compete in front of the Brazilian
fans. At that time, there was little money in the sport and most
competitors fought for the love of the game. They knew the history
of Brazilian vale tudo and wanted to be a part of it.

Jeremy
Horn File Photo

Horn submitted at UFC 17.5.

“It was something a little special to fight back then at the
birthplace of MMA,” Jeremy Horn
says. “It was definitely meaningful to me. Fans are great
everywhere, but it’s special to be able to compete somewhere that
had that history.”

The first fight of the main card set the stage, as it was notable
in two particular respects. First, it was clear from the onset that
the crowd was more educated about fighting than many of the ones in
America at the time. Second, there was nothing the fans were more
passionate about than watching Brazilian fighters take on opponents
from other countries.

When Horn, an American, came out, he was greeted with whistles and
boos. Ebenezer
Fontes Braga entered to loud cheers and chants of his name from
his fellow Brazilians. Horn knew he was in hostile territory but
did not consider it a potentially dangerous situation. It was only
about a year after the infamous Renzo
Gracie-Eugenio Tadeau riot, but Horn was hardly a fighter with
a reputation for instigating trouble.

“When you’re in Brazil, it’s always a heated atmosphere,” Horn
says. “It was a rowdy, rambunctious crowd. Now, I didn’t see any
potential trouble, but they were definitely very excitable.”

Shamrock had seen both ends of the spectrum.

“I fought in Japan, which was very subdued,” he says. “The American
crowds were very loud. The crowd in Brazil was the first crowd that
kind of functioned as a unit. They were incredibly connected,
singing songs, chanting together. I could tell it was a different
cultural thing.”

The finish of the fight demonstrated that it was an audience
familiar with the nuances of no-holds-barred fighting. The crowd
began to cheer when Braga started to lock in a guillotine choke,
and, as he cranked the hold, it grew ever louder. The moment Horn
tapped, the fans exploded.

The Brazilian crowd’s response to Braga’s submission victory stood
in stark contrast to the UFC’s previous event, UFC 17,
where the American audience did not react to Carlos Newton
locking in a triangle choke or Bob Gilstrap
tapping out, and there still appeared to be some confusion as to
what happened even after the fight was stopped. Submissions were no
mystery to Brazilian fight fans by 1998.

By comparison to Braga-Horn, the crowd reacted negatively to the
next two matchups between foreign fighters. Tsuyoshi
Kosaka-Pete
Williams was an entertaining ground battle, but the fans jeered
both men, perhaps because the Rings mainstay
and the Pancrase
veteran did not utilize strikes on the ground, which were
prohibited in those organizations. Mikey
Burnett-Pat Miletich
was a tight-grabbing bore that served as the impetus for the modern
UFC rule prohibiting the grabbing of an opponent’s tights.

The atmosphere, however, turned around with a familiar formula:
Brazil vs. America.

David
“Tank” Abbott played the role of a villain at early UFC events,
but, really, he was more of a hero to the fans when he fought. His
cocky demeanor, heavy punches and outspoken persona fit in well
with the early ethos of the UFC. One night he was decidedly not a
crowd favorite was at UFC 17.5. He faced a young Marco Ruas
protégé named Pedro Rizzo in
front of the partisan Brazilian audience.